Offsite backup options for Hyper-v

[RichIbizaSport]

We're currently in the process of spec'ing an upgrade for one of our clients. I could do with some suggestions.

We currently have 12 servers, we'll be virtualising with hyper-v and consolidating.

We take backups of SQL db's to a SCSI VXA tape drive, which is on a 7 day rotation, the tape is switched everyday and taken offsite. Around 500GB worth of data. Takes around 8 hours to complete. We already keep the db's on RAID-5, but the customer requires an offsite backup.

This is all done in our local data center by their staff (n.b the staff are rather rough - in that they're smashed several of our tapes and destroyed a couple of server power buttons).

We'll most likely be using our existing CA ARCServe r15 license.

Budget is < £1k

Hyper-V doesn't support SCSI pass-through. So the options I see are:

SCSI-iSCSI bridge - Keep the existing VXA drive. After a brief look, this seems kind of a hack and slash option. Anyone using one?

iSCSI tape drive - Haven't managed to find one people recommend, very likely to be waaaay over budget.

Cloud backups are probably out of the question - 500GB worth of fresh data is going to take while!

Is it time to move to disk backups?

I've had a look but struggling to find something ideal. We need hot-swap, preferably permanently enclosed drives.

NAS or eSATA is unimportant as we do all the backups from a single server.

What other options are availible? Any comments?

Thanks

 

[Chronictank]

Cloud services aren't as bad as you think but then it really depends how big your pipe to outside is
Remember you can put the whole vdi instance into the cloud so your backups are done on their side if you really wanted to (ask your Microsoft reseller), you can get them to set it up so all the management is done by you rather than them and they essentially just host your kit

Can't really advise properly without knowing more about your main user profile

If you do overnight backups i can't see 500gb being too bad (it would be differential so only the first one will be the big hit just do it over a weekend?)
Or do you mean 500gb is generated every week/day?

 

[Skidilliplop]

A grand is far too tight a budget for a robust solution for 12 servers.
Best advice I can give: Get more money, do it properly.

Btw, of those DBs you talk about are SQL or Oracle. They really shouldn't be on RAID5, they should be on RAID 1 or RAID10

 

[paradigm]

Solarwinds do a relatively cheap SCSI passthrough for Hyper-V (well presents as iSCSI to the VM), but works well.

We use it for DPM2010 on our Hyper-V environment.